Multiple-spindle continuous-drilling machine



E` P. BULLARD. JR

Fea. 23 192e. 1,574,727

MULTIPLE SPINDLE CONTINUQUS DRILLING CHINE 'Filed March l2?), 1921 3 Sheets-S119 1 Feb. z3 1926. 1,514,727

l:. P.. BULLARD. JR MULTIPLE SPINDLE CONTINUOUS DRILLIN MCHINE- 14 l Y Edwam'am@ Feb. 23- 1926. 1,574,727

-E. P. BULLARD. JR

MULTIPLE SPINDLE CONTINUOUS DRILLING MACHINE Filed March 2.3, 19721 3 Sheets-Sheet f5 Patented F eli. '23, 1926.

' UNIIEDsTAIEs PATENT ol-"Flc-Eiz.l

Y EDWARD r. Bomann, JE., lE- BRIDGEPOET, CoNNECTICUnnssIGNoR To THE Eur.-

LAED MACHINE TooI. Co., or BEIDGEIOET, CONNECTICUT, A CCnroEATIoN or CONNECTICUT.

l rIuIfrIrI. IisI'INnLI'z coNTINuoUs-DRILLINC'-MaoIIINE.

'Application niet March 2'3, `1921. *serial No. 454,741.v

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that EDWARD P. BULLARD, J r., .a citizen of the United States, and resident of Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, has invented certain new and useful Improvements in Multiple-Spindle Continuous-,Drilling Machines, of which the following is a specification. My present invention relates to. improvements in automatic machine tools, for small boring, reamin and turning operations, employing a serles Of'spindles and a rotary work carrier uv on which a number of pieces ofwork may e held while being operated upon.

The invention particularly relates to that class of metal working. machines wherein thev work is held stationary and the cutters rotate and continuously operate from start .to the finish of an operation. Further to provide a rotary carrier upon which thework and cutter spindles are mounted, in a manlner to be carried therewith, and to provide means whereby the respective pieces of work placed in the lrespective fixtures or holders upon the table of the carrier will be continuously operated upon lby the rotary cutting tools and so as to be completed within a single rotation of the carrier upon .which the pieces of work are'positioned be* neath the tool carrying spindles. The object of the present invention .is to provide a rapid production machine -for reproducing similar pieces of work, requiring drilling, boring,l roaming or external cylindrical operations of like nature. To provide forloadng and unloading the machine from any one or more ositions, designated as the loading station,v y a single operator positioned adjacentthereto,` and whereby the work when positioned on the machine, will be carried away .fromthe' operator and around the machine and brought back to the operator completed. Further to provide A' 45 means whereby the cuttin tool will be grad# ually and continuously fe' forward from the -begmnin to near the completion ofeach turnof t e table, and furthertodesign and time the machine sc th't as each spindle and 5.0 its toolsare brought'back tto the loading station, the operation4 upon its particular lece of work will .have beencompleted, an the tools automatically withdrawn'to permit the desired replaced thereon beneath and` adthe large worm wheel 25 se119dto the lower work to'be removed from the table and if jacent of cutting tool while the carrier `is still rotating. l

The invention further resides and consists in the construction and novel combination and arran ement of parts hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompw nying drawings, and pointed out in the claims hereto appended, it being understood that various changes in the form, proportion, size and minor-details of, construction within the'scope of the Claims may be resorted to' without departure from the spirit or sacri; ficing any of the advantages of theinvention. Like characters of referencey denote corresponding parts throughout the `several figures of the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, 'and upon which,

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of my improved formv of automatic' multiple spindle drilling 75 machine complete.

Fig. 2 is a central vertical cross sectional view taken on line 2 2" of Fig. 4.

Fig. 3 shows a top plan' View of the oomplete machine, and

Fig.- 4 shows a .sectional plaii view taken on line 4-#4 of Fig. 2, some of the spindles and spindle bearings being removed.

Of the characters of reference marked upon the drawings, 10 represents a motor ositioned in the base 11 of the machine. hisl base is of a generalcylindrical form, and is provided with an opening12 to. re` ceive a chi container 13. The motor is fitted to drlve the wheel 14 upon shaft 15 9 0 mounted in bearing 16 of the base and carrying a smaller belt wheel 17 connected'with asecond belt wheel 18 upon a short shaft 19 mounted in a bearing 20 of the base of the machine.' Upon the shaft 19 is secured 95 a gear v21 that meshes with and drives a similar gear22 upon the shaft 23 ca ing a worm 24 which serves to engageA and rive portion of the rotary carri 1126.

The lower part oftli `base 11 serves to l t furtherincludes an annular bearing v27 *including a racewayin which are ball 'earings 28 engaged'by a similar race 29 Vof the carrier.` The upper operating mecha?l annular. edge portion of the base is provided with an inwardly disposed flange 30 over which the annular apron 31 of the carrier 26 extends. A cylindrical column 32 extends up central from the base to support additional xed and operative members of the machine as will be described.

The work piece 33 to be operated on by this machine may be secured to the table 26A of the carrier in any desired or preferred manner depending somewhat upon the na- \ture of the piece and the operations required to be zperformed. As illustrated, I have shown in Figs. 2 and 3 suitable lixtures or workholders designated as 34 in which the work piece 33 is supported, the

per and lower bearings 39 of the base and column. Upon the upper end of this shaft 38 is mounted a pinion 40 which engages an idler 41 that drives the internal gear 42 of a double face gear 43 and whose outer gear section 44 meshes with and simultaneously drives each of the gears 45 upon the several tool spindles 46.

This inner and` outer face gear 43 is mounted upon a central stud 47 secured in the enfclosed top end portion of the column in a manner to not only support the stud for the said double" face gear, but to form a bearing around which the covering member 48 of the carrier rotates -49 indicates a thrust bearing for this covering of the carrier and 50 represents a ball bearing encircling the stud on which the top cover operates. This covering also serves for the attachment of the several-spindle supports 51 in which the spindles 46 are journaled,

the said parts 48 and 51 being secured together by screw bolts 52. These supports are further secured on upwardly disposed posts 53 of the carrier and secured thereto in any suitable manner as for instance by means of screw bolts 54 as shown. A dust cap 55 is employed to inclose the hub of the covering 48 and the ball bearings 50 and is secured to the reduced end of the stud by means of. a nut 56.

In addition to the annular table 26', the carrier includes a cylindrical body portion 57, which freely encircles the column 32 of the base and provided with an annular shoulder 58 upon which the annular sup.- port 59 for the spindle hearings 60 are mounted. Said support closely encircles the cylindrical portion-of -the carrier and is se- Theyare all alike i-n construction and are' similarly supported and connected for operation, therefore I- will use like reference characters to denote the same parts in the several sets. The spindles are rotatably mounted in the. bearings and each has aV gear 45 splined to its upper end for rotat- 1ng the shaft in a .way which will also pervmit the spindle to be moved-'longitudinally through the said gear during its feeding and .return movements, without disturbing` the relation of the spindle gears with the large driving ears 44. n

In ad ition to the longitudinally movable spindle bearings 60 provided for the spindles, it will also be seen that the upper ends of these spindles are also rotatably and slidably supported as at 63 in the spindle support 51 before referred to, of the carrier. A suitable chuck 64 is provided upon the lower ends of the spindles to hold the reamers or other tools 65. The spindle bearings are (provided with an upper ball bearing 66 -an a lower ball bearing 67 having sultable enclosing ca s 68 and 69 respectively. The spindle earings each include an upper reduced threaded portion 70 to which a sleeve 71 is threadably attached. A split collar 72 is clamped to this sleeve by a screw 73 and is further secured by a nut 74. These fixed collars carry a roll 75 that engages the cam groove 76 in the cylindrical cam member 77 secured to the upper end of column 32, whereby vertical reciprocatory movement is imparted to the spindle bearings and spindles with the turning o f the carrier and bearing support secured thereon. The shape of the cam groove is such as to lgradually -feed the spindles down during major portion of the rotation of the carrier and to include a quick return and a short non-feeding movement for the remainder of th'e rotation of the carrier. The short non-feeding movement of the spindles causes them to carry forward in a horizontal plane so as to obviously permit the finished work to be removed and the new piece of work to be fixed to the table of the carrier while the carrier and the spindles are still rotating. The voperation of the machine is substantially as follows:

The` motor 10 when started serves to. drive the intermediate shaft 15 and its connecting shaft 38 which in turn operates the double 130 face gear 43I that drives the several spindle gears 45 all of which are simultaneously geared to drivethe worm sh-aft and' worm in.

a 'way to continuously operate the carrier including its work table upon which the sevycarrier so as to form a continuously eral fixtures are arranged forsecuring the work to be operated upon by the rotary cutting tools carried in the chuck of thework spindles. In this connection it should be borne in mind that the several pieces of work including the fixtures for -holding the same are carried around with the carrier together with the spindles also mounted upon the operating machine, and each piece of .wor y secured in the fixtures upon the table is properly aligned with the cutting tool of the spindles. The spindles thus serve to perform a cornplete operation with each turn of the carrier, and so that one piece of Work is cornpleted and taken from the machine for each spindle which it contains, with each rotation of the carrier. In addition to the rotary drive imparted to the drills, reamers or other cutting tools carried by the tool spindles, I also provide a vertical feeding movementbf the spindles accomplished by mounting the rotary spindles in a longitudinally movable spindle bearing and then providing a holder in which the said spindle bearing and its spindle may be reciprocated throu h the engagement of a roll carried by eac spindlebearing with an annular cam groove encircling the upper part of the machine. This cam is of such a pitchas to simultaneousl feed the respective spindles down and bac with the travel of the spindles around the cam. 'lhe completed piece is removed from the fixture beneath each spindle at each ro.- tation of the carrier, and when doing simple pieces requiring a few operations' only, a large roduction can be accomplished with a sing e operator.

Having thus fully described the invention, what Ilclaim and desire to secure'by Letters Patent is 1. In a multi le spindle machine, a base, av

hollow cylindrical support carried thereby and having -a horizontally disposed head, a rotatable carrier surrounding said support annularly, means adapted to support work pieces in radially spaced relation, a plurality of radially space tool operating spindles carried by the carrier, tools therefor, and

means for rotating the spindles comprising a non-rotatable vertical shaft carried by said head and extending above it, a spindledriving gear journaled on said shaft and having two sets of teeth, a vertical drive shaft in said sup ort at one side of said non-rotatable sha t, a gear on said drive shaft above said head adapted to drive said spindle-drivin gear through cooperation with one of sald sets of teeth, andl gears carried by said spindles and meshing with the other set of teeth.

2. In a multiple spindle machine, a base, a support carried thereby and having a horizontally disposed head, a rotatable carrier surroundingl said support annularly, means adapted Vto support work pieces in radially spaced relation, a plurality of ra? dially spaced tool operating spindles carried by the carrier,- tools therefor, and means for rotating'the spindles comprising a spindle driving gear journaled on saidhead and having an lnter'nal and an external series of teeth, a vertical drive shaft in said support and having a gear meshing with the inner set of teeth of said spindle driving gear, gears carried by said spindles and `meshing with the outer sety of teeth, and means carried by said cylindrical support adapted to cause reciprocation of said spinl dles.

3.V VIn a'multiple spindle machine, a base, a sup ort carried by said base, and having va horizontally disposed head, and a rotatdrive gear journaled on said shaft and havi ing two sets of teeth, drive means at one side of said non-rotatable shaft, adapted to drive said spindle driving gear through cooperation .with one of said sets of teeth, gears carried by said spindles and meshing with the other set of teeth and means carried by said cylindrical support adapted to cause reciprocation yof said spindles,

4. In a multiple spindle machine, a base, a hollow cylindrical support carried. thereby and having a horizontally disposed head, a

rotatable carrier surrounding said support annularly,v meansadapted to support work pieces inradially spaced relatlon, a plulralityy of radial y spaced tool operating spindles carried by the carrier, tools therefor, and means for rotating the spindles comprising a non-rotatable vertical shaft carried by said head and extending above it,a spindle-drivinggear journaled von said shaft and having two sets of teeth, a vertical drive shaft 1n said support at one side of said non-rotatable shaft, a gear on said Adrive shaft above said head adapted to drive said spindle-driving gear through cooperation with one of said. sets of teeth,

ge-ars slidably keyed to said vspindles andmeshing with the other set of teeth, recipro- `eating sleeves in which the spindles are rosleeves, and

a hollow cylindrical support carried thereby and having a horizontally disposed head, a rotatable carrier surrounding said support annularly, means adapted to support work pieces in radially spaced relation, a

Vplurahty of radially s aced tool o erating spindles carried by sai carrier, too s therefor, and means for rotatmg the spindles comprising a non-rotatable vertical shaft' carried bv said head and extending above it, a spindle driving gear journaled on said shaft and having an annular cylindrical skirt portion, provided at the outer side and adjacent the upper edge thereof with one set of teeth, and at the inner side and adjacent the lower edge thereof with another sct of teeth, a vertical drive shaft in said support at one side of saidl non-rotatab'le sha t, a gear on saidv drive shaft above said head adapted to drive said spindle,- driving gear through cooperation with said inner set of teeth and gears carried by said spindles' and meshing with said outer set of teeth.

6. In a multipleyspindle machine, a base, I

a hollow cylindrical support carried thereby and having a horizontally disposed head, a'

rotatable carrier surrounding said support annularly, means adapted to support work pieces in radiall spaced relatlon, a -plurality of radial y spaced tool operating spindles carried b the carrier, tools therefor, and means or vrotating the spindles comprising a non-rotatable vertical shaft carried by said head and extending above it,'`a spindle-driving gear journaled on said l shaft and having two sets of teeth, a vertical drive shaft in said support at one side of said non-rotatable shaft, a gear on said drive shaft above said head adapted t0 drive said spindle-driving gear through c0- operation with one of said sets of teeth, gears carried by said spindles and meshing with the other set of teeth, a rotatable cover 

